Circa. 1880, this Edo Queen Mother Bronze is a casting in honor of the Oba’s (King’s) mother, who had the same authority as that of senior town chiefs.

The title of Queen Mother was introduced by the early-sixteenth-century 
Oba Esigie to honor his mother, Idia, for her help in averting two serious threats to his rule and the integrity of the kingdom. Like Idia, the queen mothers are known for their ability to bring their own supernatural powers to the aid of their sons. 

Queen mother heads are distinguished by a special type of coral-bead crown with a high, forward-pointing peak, an elongated version of an elaborate coiffure known as "chicken's beak," worn by high-ranking Edo women. The projection on the queen mother's crown is called ede lyoba, almost as powerful as the spiritually potent ede projection on top of the Oba's crown. The right to wear a coral-bead crown is limited to the Oba, the queen mother, and the Ezomo, the Oba's principal war chief, and thus conveys the queen mother's importance in the Benin political hierarchy.

CLICK IMAGE TO ZOOM / 单击要放大的图像